At what point is a public employee so belligerent, so incompetent, so obstructionist that they should be fired? I spent 8 years as an elected official and I’ve seen staff be not cooperative because the mayor didn’t want them to be or because they disagree. And I get it. It’s part of the political system, but when has it gone too far? Last night I witnessed an amazing display of disregard for elected officials and the committee that is the lead on a very public project. Are our elected officials to just stand by while county staff run the show? If our elected officials can’t get information and be part of the process, what chance does the public have?
BACKGROUND
Long story as short as I can make it . . . Health and Human Needs meeting last night. First Lynn Green was clearly against letting homeless people use the county mailing address to get driver’s licenses and state id’s so they can vote. I had to count three times, but all 37 county board supervisors have signed on to this resolution. The League of Women Votes, the Dane Dems, the county clerk all showed up in support. Staff raised silly objections to the point where the county clerk Scott McDonell just said “this is only difficult if you don’t want to do it.” Homeless people already get their mail at the Aberg Ave. address, but staff instructed the Department of Motor Vehicles not to allow driver’s licenses and id’s to be sent there. So the county board has to over-ride that decision.
The bigger issue was they were going to discuss the day resource center . . . or so I thought. I didn’t read the agenda carefully enough and realize what is going on.
PROCEDURAL OBSTRUCTION
Yikes, I blew it on this one – I blame vacation brain. I was told that the day resource center was on the agenda and didn’t look closely myself. Turns out the agenda item on the agenda was “Update on Homeless and Housing Services” (Note, not tenant services, the county doesn’t provide tenant services.) I thought this was about the day resource center. Turns out, this was actually three agenda items. There was a staff presentation on homeless and housing services. The second item here was the community plan to end homelessness (which was not discussed at all except by the community speakers). And then the third item was the day resource center. It was very confusing.
So . . . three MAJOR obstructionist tactics to make it difficult for the public to participate in our local county government.
– Even though the staff presentation was given twice last week and was a powerpoint presentation or electronic document, it wasn’t attached to the legistar item. Why? It’s was done for over a week. I was gone last week, hadn’t seen the presentation and had no idea what was going to be said, I’m sure there were others in the room as well.
– There were handouts as well, but no copies for the audience. I’m not sure why they can’t make copies for the public, but over a dozen people were in the room for 3 hours, clearly interested in the topic, but we were not given the information.
– Finally, the public was made to speak BEFORE the presentation – so I have no clue what the hell we were supposed to be testifying to – the presentation we hadn’t seen, the handouts we hadn’t seen or the other two HUGE items that were wrapped up into this item?
THE “DISCUSSION”
The committee members actually weren’t allowed to discuss or vote on anything, so they could ask questions and ask questions only . . . but you can see that for yourself here.
I’m skipping the public input and staff presentation here not because its not important, but because this is about staff obstructionism . . . not the issue of homelessness and the day resource center, which are enormously important, but you’ve heard so much about that already.
So, Casey Becker runs through her presentation that is mostly about the day resource center concept paper – it was done VERY quickly, 5 minutes or less. County Board Supervisor Nick Zwifel from Sun Prairie is the Vice Chair of the Committee and chairing in the absence of County Board Supervisor Jeremy Levin who approves the agenda.
County Board Supervisor Heidi Wegleitner asks questions about the handouts and points out discrepancies between the numbers in the concept paper and the handouts. County Board Supervisor Matt Veldran is confused about the question – which handouts are they even talking about and its all very confusing for the audience because we, of course, haven’t seen the handouts and I can’t even competently blog what happened here since the numbers are all confusing. When Casey Becker gets stumped, Lynn Green (Director of Human Services for 15? years) jumps in to “clarify”. Bottom line, they have confusing information about budget numbers. It’s been confusing for years and somehow the staff can’t make it clear. Incompetence? Obstructionism? Obfuscation?
Wegleitner asks Casey Becker when the responses to the neighborhood will be completed. Lynn Green jumps in and doesn’t let Casey Becker answer. She says they are drafted, they are their best guesses about the questions, she is talking very softly and I couldn’t hear at the meeting or in re-listening to my recording, but she never answered when the responses will be given to the neighborhood. Incompetence? Obstructionism? Obfuscation?
Wegleitner asks when the RFP for the day resource center will be put out? Lynn Green says she can’t answer that. There is a team that has been working on the specifics of this – her department, DOA, executives office, real estate and the architect Dawn O’Krolley – and they are the ones that will decide, it meets periodically to guide the process. She has requested a meeting of that group because they were told to get the RFP out by the end of the month. They are listening to the feedback, they want feedback. The Homeless Issues Committee told them not to put the RFP out until they meet in June, so at this point “they” are asking for guidance.
County Board Supervisor Ronn Ferrell asks “ask who for guidance?” Lynn Green says “the team” that is guiding the initiative.
Wegleitner asks if the response to the neighborhood concerns will be given before the draft RFP is put out? How much advance time will that be? Lynn Green says “I honestly don’t know.” She is trying not to guess.
Wegleitner asks if the same is true about if she would release the RFP before the Homeless Issues Committee will meet? Lynn Green says “our” intent is not to do that but we are not guiding this process entirely. More mumbling.
Zweifel says if there are no other questions, we can move on. And moves to item H which is future meeting agenda items and dates.
Wegleitner interrupts and asks if they can have discussion on this item. Zweifel says this is just a presentation and we are not voting. Wegleitner asks if they are allowed to give feedback (which is what Lynn Green said they were looking for). Long pause. Um.
Wegleitner says its strange because it seems like the “guidance” is coming from somewhere or not and we are the overight committee.
Zweifel asks Wegleitner if she has a question about the guidance? We are not voting, this is not a piece of legislation, we were given an update and we were allowed to ask staff questions, we have gone through the questions, we’re not going to banter among ourselves because its not a piece of legislation. So if you have more questions of staff I am happy to let you ask them.
Wegleitner indicates she has questions and Zweifel tells her to “fire away”.
Wegleitner asks about the $117,000 gap – she doesn’t know if she should ask Lynn Green or Casey Becker – but Green is asked to come up by Zweifel. Wegleitner says that the county board passes the budget and between the day center line and the interim day services line between the city and county we have more than enough to cover the gap. Is the gap still there as a policy matter and recommendation of the people who drafted the concept paper (a different “guidance” group than the county staff one – this one includes Downtown Madison Inc, the City, United Way and one nonprofit that is likely to apply for the funding, but not other nonprofits that are likely to apply for the funding – and who knows who else is in this other mysterious group) or is it there because the group didn’t think they had the authority to commit the funds and some other policy making group (legislative, executive branch) has to do that. Is it philosophical.
Green says they can’t budget that money right now, we follow the guidelines of the adopted budget by the county board and county exec and we can’t allocate or commit the 2017 budget money. The gap – there was some concern about producing this budget – because there were concerns people would focus in on the budget . . . and I guess what I’m trying to say is I don’t know what the gap is, it could be more, it could be less. Um, there are a number of things in the budget that are . . . what we need to hear from the operator what they think the gap is (WELL, YOU DID. YOU REJECTED THEIR PROPOSAL. BUT DON’T PRETEND YOU DON”T KNOW. Sigh . . . ) on East Washington they had a security system that was done by volunteers and seemed effective and didn’t cost anything. So, I think the budget you have in front of you was the comptroller, Chuck Hicklin did his best estimate of the utilities and insurance and there is confusion because Chuck didn’t know about the van and he didn’t know that there was money contracted with Porchlight and “someone” needs to determine if we continue the contract with them or “people” will determine the operator should operate the van that serves more than the resource center. So Chuck didn’t know that.
Wegleitner says “who is “people”?” You said people will decide.
Green says, “you know, I’ll be honest, we look for guidance from elected officials, either the county board or the county exec. In terms of who is guiding this process its been pretty much the team I mentioned in terms of guidance to when the RFP goes out. We are not in charge of the CUP process, that is Todd Violante’s shop. We don’t do the real estate work. So its pretty much guided by a group of people.”
Long pause.
Wegleitner says the county, or you told the city that we are not going to do overnight storage at the facility, do I have that right, or did I mis-state that?
Green says the county exec’s (Joe Parisi) office and I told the city that we – they were asking for a clarification so they could decide what their commitment could be or they could determine what needed to be done outside the day resource center. They feel strongly it is important to have long term storage – the county has never invested in that, it has been the responsibility of the city. They were seeking clarification of what was in the concept paper and we met with them and clarified that. (Wait, what, wasn’t “the city” in the group that created the concept paper?) “We rendered the opinion that this was not long term storage” but then she immediately says “That was not an opinion, that was just said by the department”. She says out of fairness the decision was made because operating a long term stoarge is fairly complex if it is done well and they don’t want to put too much pressure on the operator. If you are going add it – it complicates it. You will have to add more money, maybe you could do it through volunteers (LIKE IT HAS BEEN DONE FOR YEARS BY ST. VINNY’S AND FOR THE PAST 2.5 YEARS BY HOMELESS PEOPLE) It wouldn’t have to be, but it adds complexity to the operation and we felt it would need to be accessed off the 8 – 5 hours (Right now its open at the Social Justice Center 8 – 6, so I don’t understand where she is getting that.) The neighborhood would need to know that and just to keep it moving it was determined that there would be no long term storage.
Zweifel tries to clarify about the long term storage. The testimony he heard was that it wouldn’t be accessed after 5:00. He says there is nothing to manage after 5:00. Green says Casey did research and it requires more than storage for a back pack and sleeping bag. She knows there is a storage resolution – the decentralized storage system. Wegleitner explains that people want to have a place to store things so they don’t have to carry everything on their back every night. Green says that would require cataloging all their belongings to guarantee things will be there when they want to get things out. (THIS IS JUST PURE BULLSHIT, EVER HEARD OF A LOCK. TRY BEING CREATIVE ONCE INSTEAD OF CREATING BULLSHIT EXCUSES – sorry . . . couldn’t help myself . . . and its about to get worse, but I’ll bit my tongue til it bleeds) There were issues when they tried the storage in the dog cages and people lost their possessions, we need check in and check out, what is abandoned, how long do we hang on to it and usually storage operations have bed bugs. (What the fuck “research” did they do? How about asking the place that has run the storage for the past 2.5 years? No bed bugs in 2.5 years.)
Zweifel tries again, could we have the operator define this in their proposal. Green says the space isn’t in the floor plan. (note: the floor plan comes up again later.)
Matt Veldran asks about the gardens, how much space is that? He asks Casey Becker not Green. She says she’s not the architect and points out where they are – where the building is being torn down. The current building is 20,000 square feet, the floor plan of the new building is 9,000 square feet. County Board Supervisor Richard Kilmer asks about why the building is being torn down. Becker says the architect decided. Green says the building can’t be saved in its current footprint but city ordinances require them to tear down the most usable part in the front because it doesn’t comply with current ordinance. (MORE BULLSHIT)
Wegleitner says the plan is preliminary because the operator is supposed to have input. Green interrupts and doesn’t let her finish and says it has had several iterations because the family area has been changed. Wegleitner thanks her for the changes but isn’t the operator supposed to have input on the plans, we will still be flexible, then there is the applicaiton and it could change at plan commission to, we are not entirely stuck with this at this point. Green says “exactly”. Becker says this was an effort to relect the intentions. Green says it is “in theory” to show what we can get in the space.
Kilmer asks about long term storage and if it needs to be in a heated area of the building? He’s looking for space for long term storage. Becker says . . . I have no clue . . . she says they need to make sure the belongs are safe. There are different models, areas with warmer climates would do something different. We would need to know the contents.
Veldran asks for examples. Becker doesn’t answer. Green says that Porchlight ran one for several years and you could ask them about what it takes to run an adequate long term storage and what is involved in that. Becker says that others use shipping containers and there is questions about if that is an appropriate place to put things.
Weglietner says doesn’t St. Vincent de Paul run a storage. Casey says you can access that 2 times a week and people are limited to two totes.
Supervisor Ronn Ferrell asks about the timeline. This committee oversees this project, will we see the RFP before it goes out, or will it just go out and this is the last chance to talk about it because I don’t get notices of those other meetings that “they” attend, whoever “they” are. Are we going to have any more input? Will Tenney Lapham Neighborhood get more input? All these people that came out tonight and others in the community going to get more input or is the RFP pretty much going to be done by “they” and that’s it.
Green says they are spending as much time as they can getting input, they have had a surprisingly small number of response to the paper. We made it clear that the concept paper will inform the RFP, a decision was rendered today by purchasing that we won’t put out a draft RFP for feedback, the feedback will be in the concept paper and that will inform the RFP. They have continued to put in “the system” when they get requests liek the Homeless Issues Committee did to wait, “that is in the hopper”. (Ok, now I’m wondering, is there a giant computer that is running the county, if so, it all makes sense now given the status of their IT department! underfunded and underappreciated and misunderstood) Everyone has competing interest. We are going into another winter and people want it opened, there is no way that is going to happen, everyone wants to hear from the operator and until they are in place and we can’t start the CUP process and we all know how long that can be. (Do we? Do we really? Its one freaking plan commission meeting unless someone appeals it to the council. And if you do it right, and give the right notices at the right time, 60 – 75 days and done. But here’s a thing, you have to use your brain and plan ahead like a competent person would do.) So she thinks there is competeing interests, there is urgency to get it open but we want to do the best we can, the longer we delay the RFP, that is what is contingent. We already made it hopeful we would open by winter of next year. (When did it stop being July) She says if this committee wants more input, you need to tell us that and we will pass that along. (STFU – you’re a damn committee, make a motion, put it on the next agenda, call special meetings, don’t wait for “they” to tell you what to do, we elected YOU to do a job – do it.)
Wegleitner says she thought that is why we had this on our agenda, that was the request and yet it is on as a report without the ability to provide input or give direction and human service . . .
Green interrupts again, and says “the department cleared the agenda and we said do you want it on as an action item or as a report, we were directed to put it on as a report.”
Weglietner says that for the purpose of this committee to give input and profvide direction we need to have the flexibility to take an action to provide direction. Also, the Human Services Board which is advisory on budget matters to this committee met last Thursday and approved a recommendation to close the funding gap by consolidating our interim services line with our day center line – and you asked me for that language and I sent it to you and it wasn’t attached. Is that because it wasn’t . . . why was that?
Green asks “what language?”
Weglietner says the funding langauge that was approved at the Human Services Board that is advisory . . .
Green says “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize . . . ”
Wegleitner “Oh”
Green says “I didn’t reallize it was supposed to be attached.”
Wegliethner says “I expected it because you asked me to send it to you for that reason.”
Green says I didn’t realize we were attaching it to legistar. So, I’m sorry, what I meant was that I needed it as an attachment to attach it to the minutes when they go out.
Weglietner says “It seems like it might be relevant to this committee”
Green says certainly if you want to put this on the agenda for the next meeting as an agenda item and attach that, just let us know what you want to do. “Seriously, we are just trying to follow directions.”
I believe at this point Ronn Ferrell is indicating that is what they did for this meeting and there are other comments made overlapping.
They discuss when the next meetings are – the 8th and the 22nd. Green says that they have work plans scheduled but they can be totally flexible on that. Green says they set the agenda.
Ferrell says “I don’t set the agenda, so . . . ” – there is just laughter at this point . . . Green says the chair (Jeremy Levin) set the agenda.
County Board Supervisor Hayley Young asks to be clear that if the Human Services Board makes a motion about the budget shouldn’t that be a guide for people and we’re not going to put that out because we are afraid people are going to look at it but the last time we rejected a proposal because of that funding gap.
Green says there is alot to this (i.e. don’t you worry your pretty little head) she says that was not the feedback she got from people who didn’t respond to the RFP, they felt like they needed more time to work with collaborators and partners and ran out of time, they wanted an RFP that was more specific about what we were looking for and what the funding schematic was. The RFP we put out was similar to the one when Shine 608 applied for and that time we wanted it open so they could tell us what they wanted to do, this time they are saying they want more specificity so we are changing the RFP to make it more specific and one of the reasons we asked – and there was some hesitation by DOA – they wanted a demonstration that there is a gap between the funding commitment in 2016 and what it will cost. “That is what I know”
Veldran asks again – “who’s that group” that is doing the RFP. Who is the group that has been meeting?
Green says there has been a group for 5 years that essentially has directed this process and it has been composed of members of the Human Services Department – Casey for 2 years and before that Tim Saterfield, and me – the Department of Administration Carlos Pellebon – a name I didn’t recognize or hear correctly and the comptroller – Todd Violante for the CUP process, frequently someone from real estate so sometimes members of that group and then Dawn O’Krolley from Dorshner. Oh, and excuse me, the county executive, usually Josh and Jeff.
Zwifel quickly moves to future agenda items and dates without letting anyone else speak. He says they will leave that to chair Levin to set that date and he moves on to item I before anyone can speak and then to item J. Then asks for a motion to adjourn. No one got a chance to say anything.
Wegleitner asks if they can talk about future meetings, Zweifel says “we just went through that. Chair Levin will set it based on our conversation last time.” Veldran moves to adjourn before anyone else can say anything and Zweifel says they are adjourned.
WHO GETS FIRED?
“They” should all be fired for 5 years of gross incompetence, mismanagement and insubordination. I’d start with Lynn Green and the voters need to throw out Joe Parisi and Jeremy Levin who chairs the committee that oversees this process. This is just absurd beyond belief. This is how your county government operates. Is this acceptable to you?
Email Joe Parisi (parisi@countyofdane.com) and ask for straight answers from “the top” of “they”. Ask him if he thinks his staff should keep their jobs at this point? At least it will make a staff member spend a few minutes crafting a form letter taking responsibility . . . and whoever runs against him next time can expose this crap, cuz ultimately he’s responsible for this fiasco. The incompetence has to stop somewhere. Dane County values??? I think not.
